Love Love LOVE Those Point Accumulating Games

SUMMARY: Snooker, Gamblers, Full House--gimme gimme gimme!

Maybe it's because I can pick a course that I and my dogs can do well, maybe it's because other people are more intimidated by making their own courses, maybe it's because good handling really counts and there aren't as many people around doing your exact same course to get handling tips from--dunno, whatever, but I love doing point-accumulation courses and usually do fairly well at them.

Well--except for knocked bars and other trivial pursuits, which sometimes knocks us on our figurative butts. (Go figure that in Jumpers, which was Tika's worst class for the longest eternity (although not as long as Boost--50 masters Jumpers attempts for one Q and counting), we're solidly in the Top Ten for this year, and snooker and gamblers, we're barely hangin' on-- Anyway.)

I like CPE because, in addition to Snooker and traditional Gamblers (they call it "Jackpot"), they also have:

• Nontraditional gambles, which are basically whatever the judge wants to invent and so can be point-earning bonanzas.
• Full House, which is basically a gamblers opening period with no closing or gamble required. Points points points!

 There's no reason in my book why Tika and Boost shouldn't be getting high points in all of these every time.

Well, yeah, except for, like, knocked bars--hold that thought.

CPE Full House

Again from last month's CPE trial, here's the Full House course map:

Boost has more speed than Tika, so on a smooth, flowing course, I know that I can cover more yardage with her than with Tika, so can get more obstacles. Assuming everything goes well.

I marked my course on the map, but you'll see that "T"ika and "B"oost have slightly different finishes.

(Rules review: In Full House, you must get at least one 5-pointer, two 3-pointers, and three 1-pointers plus enough others to make the "points needed to qualify".  In this particular course, Aframe, weaves, and dogwalk are worth 5 points, tunnels and tire are 3, and jumps are 1.  Also, when the buzzer sounds, you have 5 seconds to get to the table or you start losing points.)

This was a nice run for both dogs: Boost had the highest score of all 85 dogs; Tika had the 2nd highest.

Tika's run (in which she demonstrates her "modified running contact"):

Boost's run:

Nontraditional Jackpot

Today, the judge decided that you had 30 seconds in which to accrue as many points as you wanted (standard gamblers opening rules), then 18 seconds in which to get at least one 5-pointer, one 3-pointer, and one 1-pointer and get to the table. The bonus: If you got those required 3 obstacles, you got a bonus of 12 points. The catches: If you don't get them, you don't qualify; if you don't get to the table before the 18 seconds are up, you ALSO don't qualify.

NOTE: In CPE, they never sound the 2nd (final) buzzer, so you don't know whether you've gone over time until you see the results.

Because Tika's dogwalk isn't lovely (she's either fast & likely to fly off, or slows way down to hit the end zone), I did different courses for the two of them--used some of the same components (aframe/tunnel double loop is a great way to get points; teeter/weave loop in this one also pretty good). Boost's course actually flows better from the get-go.

These weren't stellar runs: Tika had 3rd highest points of all 85 dogs (might have gotten more if we hadn't had bobbles--also the one who had 2nd highest ran after us so knew what we had done and REALLY pushed the limits on their run; they missed being NQed by a fraction of a second). Boost ended up with highest points but no Q. You'll see why.

Tika's run (you'll see 3 places where I didn't get there in time and/or wasn't clear enough, making a mess instead of flowing smoothly from one obstacle to the next):

Boost's run. Once again, I figured that Boost could probably get more points than Tika if things went right.  And everything went well--VERY well indeed (except for once almost losing her into a tunnel that I wasn't ready to take yet). Yes, VERY well indeed, until the point where we had about 5 seconds to go from the end of the dogwalk, over one jump, and to the table. Over... just... one... jump...

Watch the left-most timer in the lower left; she hits the start line at about 6 seconds, so she needs to be on the table before it hits 54 seconds.

As you can see, that "over just one jump" thing wasn't happening. She hit the 1st bar at 51 seconds. She hit the 2nd bar right at 54 seconds, so even if she'd gotten it, we weren't going to Q, and I was pretty sure we were over time. But dangit, since there was no second buzzer, I was just going to keep trying for that danged jump.

And on the jump after the Aframe, and going to the tire the first time, and the 2nd and 3rd jumps at the end, you see her doing some of the "this jump?" thing (she hesitates, not driving forward, looking at me instead of for obstacles to do, or jumps in front and faces me instead of looking for obstacles--). Sigh.